


under the traffic lights of route 6B

by juggyjones



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bus, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Secret Relationship, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-03-03 12:23:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13341183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juggyjones/pseuds/juggyjones
Summary: Raven has been a bus driver since she turned eighteen. She meets many people and hears as many stories, but none are as interesting as Bellamy Blake and Clarke Griffin.





	1. the princess and the mop

Raven Reyes is damn brilliant at everything she does. It takes money to become a rocket scientist as brilliant as her, so she takes up a part-time job as a local bus driver every workday afternoon from five to nine as soon as she starts college. 

Route 6B: Arkadia University to Mount Weather Square to TonDC Stadium to Elysium shopping mall to Student Residence Polis with some minor stops in between. And backwards, four times a day. Arkadia is relatively small compared to other cities in Virginia and really, it's a town. It doesn't take long to get from the centre ti the outskirts - and who the fuck thinks the outskirts are a good place to build student housing?

The first time she sees them, Raven is sweating. It's early August and she's picking up students at the University for her first solo route - and, really, the first ever 6B route - and her palms are clammy.

They go in one after another. The boy goes first. She remembers him because he is the first one to enter her first bus on her first route. Plus, it doesn't hurt that his black mop instead of hair, big glasses and a vintage - or just old - bag paired with olive skin and a smile too lively for someone who just spent hours at a lecture make him look older than he is.

Or, Raven guesses he's about her age.

"Hey," he greets.

Raven is proud that she manages to muster a decent smile. "Hey." 

He hands her a dollar and she places in the case, giving him his ticket. The next follows a blonde a bit shorter than him, with a radiant smile. Raven remembers her because she's her second customer and first female customer and her smile is really, really bright even though Raven catches a glimpse of purple underneath her eyes.

"Afternoon," greets the blonde and Raven says it back. 

The rest of the passengers are far less interesting and Raven stops sweating. The first two sit at the very front and Raven figures they'd leave soon, but she's passed four stops already and they're still talking.

See, here's the thing: Raven is a rocket scientist. Not a behavioral psychologist or interested in any humanistic sciences. Give her good old physics and chemistry and mechanics and let her do her damn job. But Raven's good with people. Her own boyfriend, Finn, says she's good at reading people. 

And she can't, for the love of her, figure these two out.

She swears to Finn later when she tells him the story, she didn't mean to listen to the conversation. But it was better than thinking about all the ways her route could go wrong and besides, they were pretty damn loud.

"It's your Achilles heel," says the mop.

The blonde laughs and the mop is smiling at her, Raven can see from the rearview mirror. "Stop using your mythology references in every situation."

"Proves my point."

"Mine, too."

"So you admit it?"

"Admit what?"

The mop's smile widens and it becomes more smug than anything else. By now, Raven is amused and very engaged. "That your stubbornness is your Achilles's heel."

Raven almost laughs. The blonde opens her mouth to protest, arms at the ready, but gives up when she realizes it's a no win situation for her. She pretends to be offended and looks through the window. The mop - Raven notes that she needs to stop calling him that, but doesn't want to - tries to elbow her in the ribs but she puts her gray bag between them before he manages to do it. 

He pouts. Raven laughs and turns it into a cough. 

They don't notice, anyway.

"C'mon, princess," says the mop. "You're no fun."

"I had a long day and it's not over yet."

"Oh? I thought you were done for today."

"I have a date," says the princess.

This is her favourite part of the story to tell. Finn's favourite to listen, so he makes he repeat it that night several times and really, she doesn't mind. 

Because of this: the mop is very obviously jealous and the princess is very obviously oblivious to it. Though, from the look on his face and how genuinely happy he looks teasing her about it, it doesn't seem to Raven either of them is aware of what is going on.

"Do you ever even watch the road?" Finn interjects. Raven smacks him and tells him to shut up while she continues her story. 

So, Raven, who sees them for the first time in her life, sees there's something and they don't. Or maybe she's wrong.

"You're definitely wrong," says Jasper, one of her friends. "You're projecting."

"And since when are you a psych major?" asks Raven.

Finn fakes a surprised gasp. "You go to college?!"

Jasper throws a banana peel at the giggling two. "Fuck you, guys. Raven, you either continue or I'm leaving "

"Stop interrupting me and I will "

"Promise."

So nothing significant happens for the rest of the ride, really. The princess isn't very keen on talking about her date for whatever reason and the mop looks a bit bummed about it, but lets it go. Raven still glances at them every now and then because her route is coming to a close and they're one of the few people still inside. 

They're really nothing remarkable. She doesn't even know what got her so interested in them.

"They're probably hot," Jasper concludes.

Raven throws him back the banana peel. "I have a boyfriend who's hot."

"Obviously." Finn smooches her and Raven eases into it, before Jasper coughs. "Ass."

"Keep it PG."

"Ass."

Anyway, so the two get off at the Polis like she'd assumed. The one thing she notices is that from the moment they leave the bus, each with a smile for her, they don't so much as look at one another. Not once. The mop goes left and the princess goes right and that's it, like they never knew each other.

That's probably why she took so much interest in them, she tells herself.

"That's a weird kink. Like, being friends, but only on the bus?"

"Jasper, that's not what a kink is," says Finn.

The goggle boy - man, Raven really needs to chill with the nicknames - shrugs. "Yeah, whatever, yoy don't know. Plus, maybe they are in a secret open relationship."

"Banging each other in busses?" Finn offers.

"Definitely. In the back of Raven's when she isn't looking."

"Ew," retorts Raven, "no. There's like - there wouldn't even be enough space for that."

"Look, no offense Raven, but if you're done with the princess and the mop story then I'm leaving," Jasper says. "Monty wants to try some stuff-"

Finn smirks. "Kinky."

"-narcotic stuff," Jasper continues with a glare, "which I don't think you'd be interested in. But really, Rave, if you get any more juice on those two hit me up."

"With a frying pan."

"Fuck off, Collins."

The two bicker for a while before Raven walks Jasper out, giving him a bag of cookies Finn made earlier. Jasper takes them with a grunt and Raven places a kiss on his cheek, smiling. 

Raven laughs. "Don't be an ass to him."

"He took away my big sister."

"Shush. You're a month younger than me."

"But you're, like ..." Jasper pauses.

"Better? Amazing? Brilliant? Awesome?"

"All of that." Jasper pats her on the back as she laughs and starts walking away, whistling a song Raven told him and Finn the bus duo talked about - an Alt-J one. 

It's her the end of her first day as a route 6B bus driver, but also the beginning of something none of them and others to come will be aware of until months after this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! this was supposed to be a one-shot of raven's bus!driver perspective on clarke and bellamy's relationship throughout the years but oops, is that no longer. also, to avoid confusion, the jordans took raven in when she was little so that's why she and jasper are so close.


	2. the social butterfly

It takes Raven nearly a month to find something else to talk to her friends about. It’s a month of quiet conversations and inside jokes she doesn’t understand, discussions about professors and occasional mentions of their other friends – names Raven doesn’t recognize.

That month, for her, has been somewhat of a trainwreck.

“I’m sorry,” is Finn’s line, when she asks him why he’s coming home so late.

Traffic. A drunk friend. Homework. Forgotten time. Lost keys. Studying.

“That’s just an excuse,” is Raven’s line, said at early hours in the morning when he wakes her up falling on the couch.

He knows better than to get in bed with her.

And Jasper? He’s already failing his classes. Professor Kane, Head of Social Studies, doesn’t let him take exams after he’s missed almost all of the classes. Raven’s dealing with it the best she can, but Jasper is stubborn and Raven thinks he might be busy creating recreational party drugs with Monty to be a proper student.

Her own studies are difficult, but exhilarating. She takes several classes with a guy named Wick, someone she often sees on her bus. He gets off at the second stop, Mount Weather Stadium. It’d be a reach to call him a friend, but he challenges Raven’s intellect like few do and she likes competing against him. 

As for the Princess and the Mop, even though they’re quieter than the first time she saw them, they’re the only constant in Raven’s life. 

She likes watching them, listening to them. The one thing she can count on, every single day. 

“That’s depressing,” says Sterling, a guy she’s met couple of weeks ago during a library study. 

“Shut up,” says Raven, holding an almost-empty bottle of beer. “College is difficult.”

“And you’re confiding into a guy you barely know.”

“‘Cause you don’t know any of these people,” she retorts, chugs the rest of the beer. She goes to the front of the party to grab two and hands him one before she sits back into the bathtub. “Anyway.”

At one point during the weekend, something happens between the Mop and the Princess. Raven doesn’t use the real names with Sterling because he’s a social butterfly and there’s a chance he knows who she’s talking about.

Not that she cares, anyway.

“Are you gonna get going with the story or?”

Raven knows they had a fight because when they enter her bus on Monday, they don’t talk. They still sit together because the entire bus is packed and they have their reserved seats, but even she can sense the tension.

In the rearview mirror, she watches them. 

Clarke sits with her back straight and staring out of the window. Bellamy, on the other hand, slouches lolling in the seat, his hair messy and begging for a cut and he’s looking straight ahead, not even noticing Raven’s curious eyes.

“So you’re talking about Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake.”

“No,” Raven says. “Definitely not. You know them?”

“By association. Don’t worry. I won’t tell.”

“You better.”

For the majority of the ride, they don’t talk. Wick gets off at his stop and Raven notices Bellamy giving him a quick, judgmental glance, but she might be wrong about that. 

Clarke does nothing. 

Right before Raven turns to stop at the Elysium Shopping Mall, the Princess starts getting her bag off the floor, putting on her coat. 

“What are you doing?” asks Bellamy. 

Raven notices confusion and a little bit of irritation in his voice. 

“I’m going to the mall,” Clarke says. “Not that I should be telling you.”

“Clarke—”

“You’re being unreasonable. Until you realize that, I don’t want to talk to you. You’re twenty. Start acting like it.”

Clarke leaves the bus as soon as Raven parks her bus. Bellamy watches after her with mouth hanging in words he didn’t get to say, and slouches even more. He looks into the rearview mirror just as Raven looks away.

It’s none of her business, she tells herself. 

But damn her if she isn’t curious as hell. 

The short drive to Polis is pretty much excruciating. Raven is trying to focus on the road but Bellamy is trying to deal with his inability to have a poker face right behind her and it’s proving to be very difficult not to look at him. 

His eyes are heavy and nice, colorful—mostly purple, though—bags are starting to grow underneath them. He’s still wearing a sweater with no coat or jacket, only a shirt peeking at the bottom and its collar at his neck, with circular, thin-rimmed glasses that make him look like a professor, not a student. 

He looks a little bit like a grumpy cat, but dressed up.

“That,” interjects Sterling, “would be the best description of Bellamy Blake.”

When he gets off at Student Residence Polis’s stop, turning a left as he always does, he greets her with a small nod.

Raven wonders if he knows she’s listening to them. 

“He doesn’t. That’s Bellamy, always polite.”

She gives a ‘hm’ in response. “Sterling, go get me another beer.”

“You have classes tomorrow. And a bus,” he says, but leaves anyway. He comes back with two beers. “You know, it’s weird to hear they’re talking. You make it sound like they’re close.”

“Aren’t they?”

“Not at all. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of them interacting on campus or anywhere out of it, anyway.”

“Huh. Then it can’t be those two,” Raven says. “Maybe I misheard the names.”

“You think?”

Raven nods. “Could’ve been Clark and Bella, for all I know. I only heard them say their names once or twice.”

“Maybe.”

They chat for a little bit after that, when Sterling asks, “What happened after Monday?”

Raven forgot about that. It must be the beer. 

After Monday, they still sit together but they barely talk. Only on Thursday, which ended only minutes ago, do they have a proper conversation. 

Well, the beginning of it. Bellamy starts to apologize a stop before Clarke’s new regular, Elysium. Raven just drops off a lanky guy who oddly reminds her of a cockroach at the TonDC Stadium. 

“I’m sorry,” says the Mop, “for yelling at you.”

The Princess says nothing. She doesn’t even look at him, but her body stiffens and Raven can tell she’s listening. 

“She can choose whom she wants to date. I just don’t think he’s the right guy for her, even if he’s your friend.”

She turns to him. “He’s a good person. You can’t judge him if you don’t know him.” 

“He doesn’t look—”

“Bellamy, that’s  _racist_.”

He rubs his eyes. “That’s not how I meant it! You know it.”

“You’re being overprotective.”

“Of course I am. She’s too reckless for her own good.”

“But you’re not her dad. You can’t be parenting her.”

For whatever reason, what the Princess says hurts a specific place in him. He stares her for a good few moments with intensity that Raven’s never seen before. His jaw is clenched and there’s a vein on his neck that pops up and Raven would bet good money it’s pulsating. 

Clarke takes it with a poker face, as if they’ve done this a thousand times before. 

He looks away. Her eyes linger on him for a moment. 

They get off at the same stop, each giving Raven a nod, and go different directions like they always do. 

“They’re talking about Octavia,” Sterling says. “Bellamy’s little sister. She’s dating Lincoln, one of art students. He’s almost four years older than her.”

“So it’s definitely your Bellamy and Clarke.”

“Definitely.”

“And you’re definitely a social butterfly who knows all the gossip.”

“Definitely, because drunk people like talking to me at parties so they tell me stuff.”

“Long story short, you drink and know things.”

Sterling laughs. “Perfect description.”

“Damn you, Sterling.”

“Don’t worry, Reyes. I won’t tell.”

He doesn’t. Not as far as Raven knows and for Sterling, that’s something. The only condition he gives her is to keep him updated. She learns Bellamy and Clarke are the best students in their year and they’ve had a competitive enemy-ship since the first year and they’re juniors now. 

That’s how Sterling ends up in her limited circle of people who listen to the story of the Princess and the Mop.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i decided this will have an actual plot (one for raven, one for bellamy and clarke) so it's not just random one shots. we'll see how it works out

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for all your comments and kudos, i was surprised and really happy to see how quickly this got attention compared to my other works. hope you enjoy it so far!


End file.
